The background art discloses a document feeding device being an example of image reading apparatuses according to the background art. The document feeding device is provided with a paper feed tray, a paper discharge tray and a conveyance guide. The paper feed tray supports a supplied document. The paper discharge tray is positioned below the paper feed tray and supports the document to be discharged. The conveyance guide conveys the document from the paper feed tray to the paper discharge tray. In the middle of the conveyance guide, an image reading position for reading an image on the document to be conveyed on the conveyance guide is set.
The paper feed tray moves upward as sheets supported by the paper feed tray is decreased and approaches a document pickup unit. The document feeding device further includes a swing conveyance unit. The swing conveyance unit includes a discharge port to discharge the document conveyed by the conveyance guide to the paper discharge tray. The swing conveyance unit moves upward as the document supported by the paper feed tray is decreased, thereby separating the discharge port from the paper discharge tray. Specifically, a link member is installed between the paper feed tray and the swing conveyance unit, and the discharge port of the swing conveyance unit ascends and descends by the same amount according to the ascent and descent of the paper feed tray. In this case, the paper feed tray and the swing conveyance unit are driven by one driving motor configuring an ascent and descent mechanism. In this manner, the document feeding device is designed to achieve miniaturization in the up and down direction.